[Role of disabled children's school as regional special education center]

The final report of the Collaborative Research Conference on Special Education in the 21th Century pointed out that supportive activities, such as education, welfare, medical care and labor should be strengthened to provide special support for disabled children, and that measures should be taken for school children requiring medical care in daily life, in response to an increasing number of children with severe and multiple disabilities and other social changes. Recent great progress in pediatric medicine has enabled these children to attend schools for the physically handicapped which provide more specialized educational support. At present, support for these children is still insufficient. This symposium discusses these problems as well as future prospects of disabled children's schools.